In conversation with Jiri Marek, CEO, Air Serbia

INTERVIEW - Air Serbia CEO Jiri Marek

CAPA - Centre for Aviation asked Air Serbia, CEO, Jiri Marek to share his views on the airline's development.

Air Serbia recovered quickly from the COVID-19 pandemic. What were the key drivers of the airline's development over the past couple of years?

"Air Serbia seized the opportunity of pent-up demand and had been preparing itself for rapid growth in the post-COVID years by opening more than 40 new destinations, predominantly driven by demand in the leisure market, such as Spain, Italy, and Greece."

As an industry we continue to face challenges. What are the biggest impediments to the airline's development strategy - short, medium, and long term?

"The whole industry in the post-COVID world has been, still is and will be[,] struggling with disrupted supply chain, spare parts limitations, engine issues, insufficient manpower, congested airspace, severe weather and various other factors."

"The market has not returned to stability ever since, it is still very volatile."

The arrival of new ATR turboprops and the introduction of the E195 jet has boosted your regional flying. Why was there a need for a new aircraft type, and how will these aircraft support network growth?

"Concentrating on the growth of the A320 on the one hand and the ATR for the regional fleet, on the other hand, creates a large gap between 72 and 180 seat capacity."

"That gap in capacity is currently being served by an ageing fleet of A319, to be replaced by Embraer aircraft."

There are plans to extend your long haul flying with the arrival of further A330s, with China a key market. What is the timescale for the arrival of these additional aircraft, and which other markets show the strongest appeal?

"Recently we received our third Airbus A330, with the fourth aircraft set to come end of November."

"Furthermore, we recently launched flights to Guangzhou in China and announced the start of Shanghai at the beginning of next year."

"We expect the next step will be frequency densification rather than new destinations."

How would you describe the recovery in traffic to and from Central and Eastern Europe? Which international markets have been the key growth drivers?

"There is strong growth across predominantly Central and Southeast Europe, in our case the wider Balkan region."

"We took the opportunity of capturing this demand by growing the company in the last two years by over 50 per cent and opening 43 destinations, again predominantly driven by the leisure market (i.e. Spain. Before COVID, we used to fly twice a week to Madrid and twice a week to Barcelona[,] and now we have seven weekly flights to Barcelona and four flights to Madrid per week, and fly to Valencia, Malaga, Palma etc.)."

Air Serbia reported profits in 2022 and 2023 and is on track for a third successive year of profitability in 2024. What have been the main components of this strong financial performance?

"The company used the COVID period for further restructuring and transformation to improve its efficiency[,] and I think the best example of this is that the number of employees in 2019 is similar as in 2024, while the company is currently 50 per cent above its 2019 levels."

"Air Serbia has also proved to be very agile and flexible in reacting to any market opportunities."

Jiri Marek, CEO, Air Serbia will be among the speakers at the forthcoming CAPA Airline Leader Summit World & Awards for Excellence will take place in Belgrade, Serbia on 21-22-Nov-2024. The CAPA Airline Leader Summit World & Awards for Excellence are the crowning event of CAPA's 2024 summit series. The two-day summit combines CAPA's characteristic blend of aviation industry analysis and knowledge with thought leadership from dozens of speakers and networking opportunities from across the sector. The 2024 edition of the event affords attendees an opportunity not only to benefit from the lessons learned across industry in 2024, but also to gain powerful insights into how key developments and strategic changes are changing the outlook for the sector. With aviation having fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, Airline Leader Summit World will reveal where the industry is headed.